Andrey Lugovoy

Andrey Konstantinovich Lugovoy (Russian: Андре́й Константи́нович Лугово́й; born 19 September 1966), also spelled Lugovoi, is a Russian politician and businessman and deputy of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, for the LDPR. He worked as a KGB bodyguard and as head of "Ninth Wave", a security firm.

Andrey Lugovoy
Member of Parliament
Андрей Луговой
Andrey Lugovoy (2019)
Personal details
Born
Andrey Konstantinovich Lugovoy (Андре́й Константи́нович Лугово́й)

(1966-09-19) 19 September 1966
Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, USSR
NationalityRussian
Political partyLiberal Democratic

He is wanted by British police on suspicion of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB and later FSB officer. Russia has rejected the request for his extradition, as the country's constitution forbids the extradition of its own citizens.[1]

KGB and security services career

Born in 1966 in Baku, Lugovoy attended the elite Moscow Higher Military Command School of the Soviet Army from 1983 to 1987.[2][3]

In 1987, he joined the KGB's 9th directorate which provided security for top state officials. He was a platoon commander for five years and then served as a commander in the Kremlin Regiment's training company. In 1991, he was transferred to the Federal Protective Service of Russia until his resignation at the end of 1996. During this time he provided security for Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, the head of the presidential administration Sergey Filatov and Foreign Minister Andrey Kozyrev.

Lugovoy went on to work in the private security business. For several years he was head of security at the private television company ORT, then owned by now fugitive tycoons Boris Berezovsky and Badri Patarkatsishvili. In 2001, Lugovoy was arrested and charged with organizing the escape of Nikolai Glushkov, a former deputy director-general of Aeroflot arrested in 2000 on fraud charges.[4]

Alexander Litvinenko poisoning
Main article: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

Lugovoy met with Litvinenko on the day Litvinenko fell ill (1 November 2006). Litvinenko died later in November from radiation poisoning caused by Polonium-210, and, on 22 May 2007, British officials charged Lugovoy with Litvinenko's murder, announcing they would seek his extradition from Russia. Russia declined to extradite Lugovoy, citing that extradition of citizens is not allowed under the Russian constitution.

Lugovoy had visited London at least three times in the month before Litvinenko's death and met with him four times. Lugovoy met with Litvinenko on the day he fell ill (1 November). Traces of polonium-210 have been discovered in all three hotels where Lugovoy stayed after flying to London on 16 October, in the Pescatori restaurant, Dover Street, Mayfair, where Lugovoy is understood to have dined before 1 November and aboard two aircraft on which he had traveled.[5] He was treated at a Moscow hospital for suspected radiation poisoning but declined to say whether he had been contaminated with polonium-210, the substance that led to Litvinenko's death on 23 November 2006.[6]

Timeline of Lugovoy involvement in Litvinenko poisoning
  • On 30 November 2006, Georgian tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili described Lugovoy as a "close friend" with whom he had been working for thirteen years. He said he hoped Lugovoy was innocent, but added that there is "no such thing as a former KGB agent."
  • On 4 December 2006, Lugovoy visited a hospital in Moscow for medical tests.
  • On 9 December 2006, Lugovoy was released from the hospital and declared to be in "satisfactory condition."[6]
  • On 26 January 2007, The Guardian reported that the British government was preparing an extradition request asking that Lugovoy be returned to the United Kingdom to stand trial for Litvinenko's murder.[7]
  • On 5 February 2007, Boris Berezovsky told the BBC that on his deathbed, Litvinenko said that Lugovoy was responsible for his poisoning.[8]
  • On 22 May 2007, Britain's Director of Public Prosecutions announced that Britain would seek extradition of Lugovoy and attempt to charge him with murdering Litvinenko. Russia has previously stated that it has no right to allow the extradition of any Russian citizen for trial in Britain.[9]
  • On 28 May 2007, the British Foreign Office formally submitted a request for Lugovoy's extradition to the Russian Government.[10] This was confirmed by both the British embassy in Moscow and the Russian prosecution office.
    • Lugovoy is quoted as saying he is a "victim not a perpetrator of a radiation attack", and he has called the charges "politically motivated".
    • The Constitution of Russia, like that of France, Germany, Austria, China, and Japan forbids extradition of its citizens to foreign countries (Art. 61), so the request cannot be fulfilled.[11] Russian citizens can be convicted of crimes committed abroad by Russian courts if foreign law agencies provide necessary evidence.
  • On 31 May 2007, Lugovoy held a news conference at which he accused MI6 of attempting to recruit him and blamed either MI6, the Russian mafia, or fugitive Kremlin opponent Boris Berezovsky for the killing.[12]
  • On 4 July 2007, Russia formally declined a UK request to extradite Lugovoy.[13]

Political career

Following the interest in Lugovoy in regards to Litvinenko's death, on 15 September 2007, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), announced that Lugovoy would be in the second place after Zhirinovsky on his party's candidate list for the Duma election. This meant that Lugovoy could become a Russian MP in December 2007 and acquire parliamentary immunity. Lugovoy himself confirmed that he would take part in the following Duma election and on 17 September 2007, during a Liberal Democratic Party of Russia meeting, has also said he would like to bid for the Kremlin run.[14]

On 10 December 2007, British Ambassador in Moscow Tony Brenton voiced regret over the election of Lugovoy to the Duma, saying:

It is a pity that a man wanted for murder gains political recognition. It does Russia no good at all to have Lugovoy there in the parliament. It continues the suspicion. If he steps a foot out of Russia he will be arrested. We want him.

In December 2008, Lugovoy voiced support for harsher laws against dissent in Russia. He told the Spanish newspaper El País

"If someone has caused the Russian state serious damage, they should be exterminated. […] Do I think someone could have killed Litvinenko in the interests of the Russian State? If you're talking about the interests of the Russian State, in the purest sense of the word, I myself would have given that order." He then clarified himself: "I'm not talking about Litvinenko but about any person who causes serious damage."[15]

Lugovoy named President Saakashvili of Georgia and the KGB defector Gordievsky as examples.[16]

On 13 March 2009, the LDPR announced it plans to nominate Lugovoy for the elections of Mayor of Sochi.[17] On 24 March, Lugovoy announced his decision not to run and instead to remain an MP in the Duma.[18]

January 2017 blacklisting

On 9 January 2017, under the Magnitsky Act, the United States Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control updated its Specially Designated Nationals List and blacklisted Aleksandr I. Bastrykin, Andrei K. Lugovoi, Dmitri V. Kovtun, Stanislav Gordievsky, and Gennady Plaksin, which froze any of their assets held by American financial institutions or transactions with those institutions and banned their travelling to the United States.[19][20]

In the 2022 ITVX miniseries Litvinenko, Lugovoy was portrayed by Rad Kaim.[21]

References
  1. "No UK charges against Russian oligarch who called for 'revolution". The Guardian. July 5, 2007.
  2. "Luke Harding talks to the prime suspect in the Litvinenko case, Andrei Lugovoi". The Guardian. May 20, 2008.
  3. Луговой: Сейчас я – заметная фигура Archived April 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, rosbalt.ru; accessed 12 March 2015. (in Russian)
  4. Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko. Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB, The Free Press (2007) ISBN 1-4165-5165-4
  5. David Harrison,"Police believe Litvinenko poisoned twice", telegraph.co.uk, 6 January 2007.
  6. Litvinenko murder witness leaves hospital, news.com.au, 10 January 2007, archived here
  7. "UK wants to try Russian for Litvinenko murder", news.com.au, 26 January 2007.
  8. "Litvinenko friend breaks silence", BBC News, 5 February 2007.
  9. "British Prosecutors to Press Murder Charges in Litvinenko Case". Voice of America. Archived from the original on May 24, 2007. Retrieved May 22, 2007.
  10. "UK requests Lugovoi extradition", BBC News, accessed 12 March 2015.
  11. The Constitution of the Russian Federation. Chapter 2. Rights and Freedoms of Man and Citizen, constitution.ru; accessed 12 March 2015.
  12. "UK 'behind Litvinenko poisoning'", BBC News, 31 May 2007.
  13. ""No UK charges against Russian oligarch who called for 'revolution'", The Guardian, 5 July 2007.
  14. "Lugovoy Running For Parliament, Eyes Presidency", Radio Free Europe, 17 September 2007.
  15. "Anyone harming Russia should be exterminated, says Andrei Lugovoy", The Times, 16 December 2008.
  16. (in Russian) Луговой считает, что Саакашвили можно было бы уничтожить в интересах российского государства Lugovoy thinks Saakashvili can be exterminated in the interests of the Russian state, interfax.ru, 16 December 2008. (in Russian)
  17. Gorodetskaya, Natalya (March 14, 2009). Партия отправляет Андрея Лугового на курорт (in Russian). Kommersant.ru. Archived from the original on March 17, 2009. Retrieved March 18, 2009.
  18. "Lugovoi drops out of mayoral race". BBC. March 24, 2009. Retrieved April 25, 2010.
  19. Landler, Mark (January 9, 2017). "U.S. to Blacklist 5 Russians, a Close Putin Aide Among Them". New York Times. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
  20. "Magnitsky-related Designations; Counter Terrorism Designations 1/9/2017, Office of Foreign Assets Control: Specially Designated Nationals List Update". Office of Foreign Assets Control. United States Treasury. January 9, 2017. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
  21. "Meet the cast of Litvinenko". Radio Times. June 19, 2023. Retrieved August 6, 2023.
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